Word versus K2F
Word (DOCX) is an application document: styles, XML parts, and layout that change from app to app. K2F is a semantic tree plus a compiled lock. They both claim “editable office files.” They do not mean the same thing.
K2F is not a lossless superset of DOCX. There is no Word import.
At a glance
| Topic | Word / DOCX | K2F |
|---|---|---|
| What the file is | OOXML package the Word app interprets | Semantic tree + geometry lock in a ZIP |
| Pixel-stable pages | Soft / app-dependent | Yes — viewers paint document.K2F.lock |
| Agent-stable node ids | Fragile XML | Yes — dotted ids in the semantic tree |
| Semantic roles vs presentation | Styles | Roles + Theme; no inline CSS in State A |
| Integrity banner | Optional | Required |
| Markdown round-trip | Lossy | Supported and lossy for theme, lock, and node ids |
What Word is good at
Word is the right choice for day-to-day office drafting: track changes, mail merge, and a file every business already opens.
Layout is owned by the application. The same DOCX can paginate differently in Word, Google Docs, and LibreOffice. That is a feature for human writers and a problem for agents that need a stable page.
What K2F adds
Agents address nodes by dotted ids instead of walking fragile XML. Roles and a theme separate meaning from presentation. Official viewers paint the lock, so two readers should show the same pixels.
Integrity banners are required. DOCX can be signed, but the format does not ship a viewer banner contract like SIGNED / UNSIGNED / BROKEN_INTEGRITY.
Honest losses versus Word
- Not a Word clone. Track changes, comments-as-Word-knows-them, and mail merge are not the K2F v0.1 product.
- Slides are not shipped. A PowerPoint replacement is on the roadmap, not in v0.1.
- Theme, lock, and node ids do not round-trip through Markdown. You can export Markdown from K2F; you lose those.
When to pick which
- Stay on Word when the workflow is human drafting in an office suite.
- Use K2F when an agent must edit clauses by id and the published page must not reflow per app.
- Do not treat DOCX as a K2F source. Write the semantic tree (or generate it with the K2F skill).
See the full matrix on Compare. Format rules live in the specification.